Rick Haglund: Universities are partly to blame for their funding predicament

Former U-M president James Duderstadt attributes animosity toward higher ed to Tea Party politics and the arrogance of university officials.

Universities are to blame for some of the disdain targeted at them, says a former U-M president.File Photo

There was a time when we believed a college education was so important to the future of Michigan that our tax dollars should pay most of the cost of operating public universities.

Not anymore. Michigan and most other states have slashed support for higher education over the past couple of decades.

Michigan has cut funding for higher education by nearly 22 percent since 2008. University officials cite declining state support as a major reason why tuition costs have exploded.

Former University of Michigan President James Duderstadt says the states have “largely abdicated their responsibilities” to fund universities.

But the plain-speaking Duderstadt is no apologist for the hallowed halls of higher education. He says the universities are much to blame for the fiscal vise gripping them.

University presidents are quick to point out that they’ve trimmed hundreds of millions of dollars from their budgets to cope with government funding cuts.

But Duderstadt, who is involved in a number of efforts to transform higher education, says the public perceives something different.

“Universities have million-dollar football coaches, and sushi bars and climbing walls in the residence halls,” he told me.

“Some of them have edifice complexes. They build these fancy buildings to satisfy a donor who is paying 10 percent of the cost,” Duderstadt said. “They need to get their house in order.”

Such spending has contributed to a wider disdain for higher education. Last week a research associate at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy said the state should stop subsidizing higher education because there is no evidence that the funding boosts the economy.

Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger said support this year in his caucus for colleges and universities will come in the form of demands for “accountability and results.”

Bolger said in a recent column for MLive.com that supporting those who don’t want a college degree is equally important “because we value the men and women who work with their hands every day to literally make, build, and grow our great state.”

Nothing wrong with that. But Duderstadt said the future of higher education—particularly the research university--is being threatened by a growing hostility toward advanced learning.

Duderstadt attributes this animosity to Tea Party politics and the arrogance of university officials.

But universities are too important to cast aside in an increasingly “hypercompetitive” global economy that will demand more knowledge, innovation and better-educated workers, he said.

Reestablishing partnerships involving business, philanthropy and government that created preeminent public research universities is critical, Duderstadt said.